本文主旨在於說明筆者於過去20 年間，藉由法律與歷史、當為的規範與存在的事實、法學與史學之間的來回穿梭學習，發現了某些早已存在卻一直被忽視的現象，或從某一個角度來思考一般人習以為常的論述。例如戰後臺灣法學界就法律的現代化，向來僅從清末與民國時代中國，亦即以外省族群的歷史經驗入手。然而被忽略的是，福佬、客家、原住民等族群與現代型法制的第一次接觸，實係長達半世紀的日本殖民統治。於戰後，帶著日治所遺留的法律生活經驗的臺灣社會，即與甫來自民國時代中國的中華民國法規範，相互滲透地形塑出當今臺灣的法律與社會。接著舉出數例擬說明，若欲探究臺灣在進入施行現代型國家及法律的年代所發生之歷史事實，實不能不參考某些現代法學知識。正因所關心的不僅是現行的法規範，而擴及包含著施行過去法規範之遺緒的法社會，故提出：由於在歷史上具有「多個源頭」，以致當今臺灣法社會呈現出「多元」的風貌。最後擬討論，應如何在顧及「法」字意涵今昔之別的情形下，書寫∕描述過去的法律。並為此目的而精簡地交代今之法是什麼，且於適當之處比較其與過去的法律之異同，以供在學術研究上同時涉及法律(學)與歷史(學)者參考。

This article considers why and how the author has dealt with the inter-relationship between law and history, and that between jurisprudence and the science of history over the past two decades in Taiwan. One of my findings, which has been previously neglected, is that the process of modernization of law in Taiwanese society began during the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945). Both the ROC law, which was the product of legal modernization in Republican China (1911-1949), and the legal legacy of Japan’s fifty-year rule of colonial Taiwan have shaped today’s Taiwanese society in its law. Researchers who wish to explore Taiwan’s development after modern law was enacted on the island must have an understanding for theses roots of its modern jurisprudence. Due to the multiple origins of Taiwan’s legal system, there are now plural viewpoints and values in Taiwanese legal society. Finally, I discuss how to interpret and write on past legal phenomena based on an understanding of how the meaning and contents of law have changed from the past to the present.

法律繼受；日治時期；臺灣法律史；傳統中國法；法學

reception of law; Japanese period; Taiwanese legal history; traditional Chinese law; jurisprudence